Pack your bags ~ an RSD art journal spread

Hi everyone! The first of the month means two challenge posts for me. This one is an art journal spread for our Rick St. Dennis Progressive Challenge over at the Sparkle and Glitter blog. This month is the Anything Goes portion and for those who play along, the image for next month's challenge will be sent to them as a freebie. I haven't done an art journal spread in a while and had this idea in my back pocket just waiting for a chance to have a play. It's called Pack Your Bags...We're Going on a Guilt Trip. This saying makes me laugh and helps me put things into perspective at times.

When I asked Rick for a suggestion of an image that was suitable for the theme, he came up with one of Helen's Mice, August, available at his Zibbet shop, which I thought was just perfect. I love how touristy and enthusiastic she looks...and how that contrasts with feelings I have when anyone tries to use guilt to sway my decision. I coloured her with bright Prismacolor pencils and then added some white doodling to the black border before fussy cutting the frame and image.

The background began with torn index and map pages from a very old school atlas adhered with matte medium to the background. A thin coat of white gesso was painted over that and then blue and green Neocolor II crayons were scribbled over that. A wet paint brush spread the colour and once dry, Cotton Candy and Metallic Mint gelatos were applied to deepen the colours here and there as well as on the page edges. Forget-Me-Not Archival ink was sponged through the TCW netting stencil.

I went through my stash of travel ephemera and papers and chose a few pieces which I inked with Vintage Photo and edged with Black Big Brush pen. The words were snippets of a MME Travel themed page, and the vellum piece was from who knows where.All were adhered to the pages and outlined with a black pen before August was popped up on tape and joined them. Since Pack Your Bags was also part of the title, it was matted in orange cardstock, both to repeat the orange colour and to make it stand out from the other words.

The other half of the title was done with a Dymo labeller and Idea-ology Ransom AlphaParts to which I added white dots. Pieces of drywall mesh, white punched dots, and punched black border were added in a few places to create more layering and add contrast. Jet Black Archival ink was used on a text stamp and applied in a few places as well. To complete the pages, Black Big Brush pen and doodling were added to the edges which seems to frame the spread and keep the eye from drifting off of it.

Thanks for visiting August and me today. We appreciate your company and your kind comments. To view what some of my talented teamies created for the Progressive Challenge, please pop over to the Sparkle and Glitter blog. They are so talented! We would love to have you join us...you have the entire month to play along. You know you wanna!

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Delight in Every Moment ~ TEW Challenge #18

Hi everyone.It's November already and since it's the first of a new month there is a new challenge at The East Wind. All of the DT are using the freebie image, Aurora Go Green, which comes in the TEW newsletter to those who subscribe. Our challenge theme for # 18 is Go Green which can be interpreted as either using the colour green or as recycling. I chose to feature both. I coloured Aurora with Prismacolor pencils and fussy cut her. She was then adhered to black cardstock and fussy cut again leaving a narrow mat. Foam tape was placed on the back to add dimension and shadow.

The background began with a white card base and a piece of green patterned paper from my scrap box. The next layer was recycled packaging from scrapbooking supplies, trimmed to fit inside the green rectangle, inked with Black Soot, and matted with black.. All three layers had the corners rounded with a punch. Jet Black Archival was sponged through Dina Wakley's plastic mesh stencil to create more interest on the faded text background. Four tiny rectangles of shimmery paper were cut from the front cover of a paper pad. They were matted in black, adhered to the left side, and embellished with flat black pearls. Two little semi circles were punched in the packaging layer so that recycled cord from a package could be wrapped and tied. The punched areas hold the cord in place.

Once Aurora was adhered to the packaging layer, small maple leaves were punched from recycled book paper and coloured with Dried Marigold and Worn Lipstick Distress ink. Three tiny buttons, which are the same as the colours from the sparkly pape,r were adhered to the bottom right corner. The sentiment, from Create With TLC, was printed on kraft paper, cut with an MFT die, and matted in black. A double layer of foam tape popped it up higher than the image.

Thanks for stopping by today. Aurora and I are so happy you did. To see the fabulous versions by the rest of my talented teamies, pop over to The East Wind Challenges blog. We would love to have you play along with us in our Go Green challenge.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Hester's Pantry ~ an RSD assemblage piece

Welcome to day 30  of the 31 days of Halloween organized by Smeared and Smudged, This is my final turn to post on the Airless Chambers blog for this event.

I chose to play with Hester Hoopgarten creating her pantry cupboard. Hester can be found in Rick St. Dennis' Zibbet shop. I coloured Hester and her little scorpion friend with Prismacolor pencils, fussy cutting them while leaving a narrow white border. The image was then matted on black cardstock and cut out again, giving it more strength. Hester needed that so she could remain unbending and inflexible...as usual.

Hester's cupboard is a masonite hutch shrine from Coffee Break Designs. It measures 4.5" tall by 2.75" wide and 1.25" deep.The insides were all covered with Halloween paper scraps adhered with matte medium. Once it was glued together, the outside was covered with a spider web designed paper and the raw paper edges were inked with a black Big brush pen. A drippy border was die cut from red and black cardstock which were offset to create a shadow and greater contrast. A spider web was die cut from black cardstock and then painted with Clear Wink of Stella before being trimmed and adhered to the upper right corner.

Because this is Hester's pantry, two larger and three smaller bottles were stored in it with such yummy ingredients as Spider Legs, Bat Blood, Slime of Snails, and Foul Breath Mints (Vectoria Designs labels). A skeleton hand was adhered to the top of the hutch with Glossy Accents and Hester's message, Want me to spell it out for you, was printed on handmade paper. The message was then torn around (we don't give Hester sharp objects like scissors) and inked with Vintage Photo. Beware! She means business.

Thanks for visiting Hester Hoopgarten, her scorpion, and me today. The 31 Days of Halloween is nearly over...it's been a scream!

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Halloween Pals ~ RSD tag

It's day 23 of the 31 days of Halloween organized by Smeared and Smudged and my turn to post on Rick St. Dennis' Airless Chambers blog.

I chose to create a tag for my Day 28 project featuring the RSD image Halloween Pals which can be found in Rick's Zibbet and Etsy shops. This madcap crew makes me smile big time! They look like they are having such fun. I coloured them with Prismacolor pencils and then fussy cut the image with a narrow white border to help it stand out against the background. It was then popped up on foam tape for a little dimension and shadow.

The background began as a black #8 tag which I matted in shimmery orange cardstock after adding washi tape to the bottom edge. The hole at the top was covered by a star sticker and black grosgrain ribbon with white stitching was added to the back as a topper.

The sentiment was computer generated. It seemed appropriate since I really do drive a stick shift and am always amused by people's reactions. The other sentiment I almost went with was "Dance Like No One is Witching". The edges of the sentiment were inked with Dried Marigold Distress ink to grunge it up a little and continue the orange throughout the tag. The little bat is holographic so it changes colour as the light shifts and adds a fun bit of shine to the piece.

Thanks for visiting the Halloween Pals and me today. We appreciate your fine company.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Pumpkin Kitty ~ CYP Challenge # 237

Hi everyone! Well, it's Halloween week and I'm sure there are a whole lot of last minute costume adjustments and candy buying going on this week. We never buy our candy too early because then we have to buy it twice. It seems to evaporate from the cupboard...somehow! Our challenge theme this week at Craft Your Passion is "Trick or Treat...Give Me Something Good to Eat". We want to see Halloween themed projects featuring sweets or food somewhere. It could even be Halloween treat packaging.

AuroraWings is our wonderful sponsor. I love Mitzi's artwork so this was a treat in itself. I chose to play with this adorable Kitten in a Pumpkin image, using my own kitten as a model...lol. Not that he would stay this still ...he's a bit of a Tasmanian devil from the cartoons I used to watch :) I coloured the image with Prismacolor pencils using short choppy strokes for his fur. Then I fussy cut him and added black matting to  help frame him. Halloween Love!

The background of the card began with a white base and black cardstock cut to fit inside it leaving a white border. A scrap of orange patterned paper was cut into three rectangles all the same size and allowing for a black border around and between them.The bottom edge of each section was given a scalloped border punched from black and the other three edges were faux stitched. The sentiment which was computer generated and coloured in with an orange marker was matted in black, edged in Dried Marigold Distress ink, and faux stitched. Both the image and the sentiment were popped up on foam tape.

The top of the card was embellished with three tiny chipboard flags threaded with orange twine. The bottom section was wrapped with the same twine and then a large orange button with a smaller black one stacked on top was added where the twin crossed. A pretty simple card design but when the image is this gorgeous, I like to let it be the focus with few distractions.

Thanks for stopping by to visit with Kitty and me. We love that! When you get a moment, pop over to the Craft Your Passion Challenges blog to see the fabulous designs by our talented DT and to welcome our awesome new members. We'd love to see you join us with your Halloween projects featuring food. Yum!

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Something Went Bump ~ an RSD art journal page

It's day 23 of the 31 days of Halloween organized by Smeared and Smudged and my turn to post on Rick St. Dennis' Airless Chambers blog.  I decided to create an art journal page starring the lovely and glamourous witch from Rick's image, Something Went Bump which can be found in his Zibbet shop. I coloured her with Prismacolor pencils and fussy cut her leaving a narrow white border. She and her friends were then matted with black cardstock and popped up on foam tape.

The background started as a rectangle of mixed media paper which takes all of the layers of colour without causing a fuss. The background was first scribbled on with orange and red Neocolor II watercolour crayons, activated with a wet brush, and then repeated. Red Cherry, Tangerine, and Lemon gelatos spread with my finger were used to deepen the edges and random areas.

Jet Black Archival ink was applied to the background through the TH Shattered stencil and was also used to stamp the spider web on both sides. White gesso was pounced through TCW's Harlequin stencil and a black Stabilo pencil was used to shade on the left of each diamond. The word Boo was stamped onto the open spaces with Red Geranium Archival ink. Harlequin washi tape was added under our lovely witch to ground her and a wee remnant was also added to the right side in order to bring that pattern to the top of the piece.

The sentiment, What doesn't kill you only makes you STRANGER, was computer generated and printed onto white cardstock. It was then trimmed and matted in black before being popped up on foam tape. Cheesecloth was added under the section at the top. Two threaded buttons and a spider were added to the project before black matting was adhered to the back, serving as a contrasting frame.

Thanks for popping by today. Hope this gave you a smile. I know it did for me...not to mention fashion ideas galore!

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Halloween Hopes ~ CYP Challenge #236

Hi there! It's Monday and that means a new challenge at Craft Your Passion Challenges. Our theme this week is BINGO and our sponsor is the wonderful Zap Pow Designs. Their quirky characters are so fun! To play along with this challenge, choose a line either vertically horizontally or diagonally and add those three items to you project.

 I chose to play with Vlady Bat, colouring him with my Prismacolor pencils and then fussy cutting him. Black and white half pearls were added to his eyes and once he was adhered to the background, shading was done with a Stabilo pencil and activated with a waterbrush.

The background is a page from Recollections' Witch's Dust Halloween  collection. It was trimmed to fit inside the white card base and matted with black cardstock. Vlady and some of his die cut friends were adhered to the forest paper. Doodling and red gems eyes were added to the bats Two lengths of gray dotty grosgrain ribbon were added to the right side and a punched circle of shimmery yellow cardstock was added for the moon after being trimmed to fit. Faux stitching added some fun detail to it.

The sentiment was computer generated, printed on white cardstock and matted with red and then black. It was faux stitched and then popped up on a double layer of foam tape. Threaded buttons were added to the ends of the sentiment element. That completed the middle vertical column on the Bingo Board: buttons, image, gems.

Vlady, his posse, and I thank you for stopping by today. When you get a moment, pop over to the Craft Your Passion Challenges blog to see the rest of the fun BINGO projects by my talented teamies. Then pick a line...any line and join in the fun!

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie